


Five People Peggy Didn't End Up With (And One She Did)

by BrandonJT



Series: Vintage Vignettes [1]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 03:44:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9217112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrandonJT/pseuds/BrandonJT
Summary: Peggy's love life is almost as complicated as her job, and the two often intertwine.





	

She never really was in love with him.

Fred Wells, Peggy thought in retrospect, was a kind man. A kind, unremarkable man most women would happily take. But Peggy was always one for adventure, she had been ever since she was born. He had views on life, on war for that matter, that were easy to accept, hell, they made sense. Peggy, though, never quite accepted the world as it was presented to her.

She wanted something challenging, something real. She once convinced herself that she was content with a life as Margaret Carter, a housewife with a boring life.

"And that's all of it, Angie." she finishes, sat on the nice leather couch provided by Howard. The man, for all his flaws, had decent taste in furniture.

"English, you expect me to believe you were ever like that? No way." Angie responded, her eyebrows raised as she rested her feet on Peggy's legs.

"I told you I'd tell you the complete truth." Peggy retorted, before shrugging. Angie read her over, doubting her best friend would ever lie to her but not completely believing someone as stubborn, as determined as her would ever settle for any semblance of a normal life.

"How can I prove myself, then?" Peggy asked, and Angie smiled, laying her head back on the couch cushion and yawning.

"Tell me another story, English." Angie pleaded. Peggy looked over at her and sighed, a small smile on her face.

"Alright, fine..." Peggy said as she began to recount another one of her war stories for Angie.

* * *

There were a lot of things that Peggy struggled with after Steve's death. It would be a long time before she could call anyone darling again. A long time before she could go a day without thinking of that man, the kind and honest smile on his face, his piercing blue eyes, the way he could melt her outwardly cold demeanor. A long time until she could love again.

"Peggy, do you...do you ever think about the future? After the war, I mean." Steve murmured, a cautiously optimistic smile on his face. The two were on a mission, a small fire acting as the sole source of heat in their tent. The commandoes were drinking and laughing, wrapped up in their old stories and charmingly juvenile jokes, while Steve and Peggy had turned in for the night.

"No, not really, Steve." Peggy responded, idly twirling her finger around. Steve looked at her blankly, his dorky, naive side showing. Peggy looked up to realize that he had something more to say, and motioned for him to continue.

"Go on." Peggy muttered, as the blonde man beamed up. The way that man could remind you that he was still that awkward and dorky yet brave and kind kid from Brooklyn despite all the legends warmed her heart through and through. And amused her to no end.

"I was just thinking...what are you going to do? Or where do you wanna live?" Steve asked, never one for subtlety. He could barely ever disguise his intentions, just another thing Peggy loved about him.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I can't go back to England, there's nothing left for me there. And the way women are treated...I doubt they'll ever put me back in the field." Peggy sighed, reminded of how bleak the future looked. But Steve's grin never left his face as he carefully extended a hand to her.

"Well, Peggy, I figure we none of us can go back. We just have to do our best to go on, move on, I mean. I guess that means starting over sometimes." Steve spoke, as Peggy slowly raised her head. She took his hand and squeezed it. Bloody hell, that man always knew what to say.

For the longest time, Peggy wondered what life would be like if they were able to settle down together and have a life. But she learned that she couldn't live in the past, and what Steve would say to her that day stuck with her for the rest of her life.

* * *

Peggy was quite the intellectual, she couldn't have gotten so far in life without it. But even a woman of her intelligence had no hope analyzing the mind of Howard Anthony Walter Stark. A decidedly egotistical man, Howard had convinced himself that he could get any woman he wanted to. A hypothesis that, unfortunately, seemed to usually be proved right.

"Hey, hey Peg, you ever wondered what would happen if you an' I hooked up?" Howard questioned, his words slurred from more than a few beers. And whatever other alcoholic beverages money would buy him. The two were at a party for World War II's most illustrious veterans in America, bright lights shining down on them.

"God no, Howard." Peggy answered, equally buzzed, but knowing there was no amount of alcohol on Earth to make her ever consider that. Normally, Howard's cracks at her were few and far between, mostly knowing that she was absolutely not interested and respecting her too much to go any further with them. But when the billionaire playboy got drunk, his inhibitions melted away.

With that, Howard leaned in for a kiss, causing Peggy to drunkenly sock him in the jaw, sending him flying onto the floor. The party's other guests gasped in shock and cleared out from the area near them. He passed out then and there, while Peggy suddenly realized what she he had done in front of everyone. From then on, Howard was completely aware that Peggy was unobtainable.

Nearly a decade later, Peggy and Howard were talking about SHIELD at a nice lunch. Peggy was a much different person, though still recognizable underneath her sun hat, while Howard was mostly unchanged. A bit more responsible with the advent of the new organization, but just as promiscuous and snarky as ever. Suddenly, a blonde caught his eye, and he was staring at her with the subtlety of a grizzly bear. Peggy sighed at him.

"Howard, can any time ever be sacred for you?" the director asked her co-founder. He shrugged innocently as Peggy looked behind her at the blonde, who was sitting alone.

"Oh, I recognize her. Name's Maria Carbonell, a reporter for the New York Bulletin. She seems to have take an interest in SHIELD, but from meeting her, I doubt she'll take any interest in you." Peggy murmured, eyeing the restaurant's menu. Howard smirked.

"Y'know me, Peg, I'm not afraid of a challenge." Howard replied, as Peggy rolled her eyes.

Howard did love to prove her wrong.

* * *

 

While Peggy met many psychotic individuals in her time, a natural fact of life given her occupation, she always found Dottie Underwood the most interesting. She was a woman of considerable skill, easily slinking in and out of environments and becoming whoever she wanted to be. It just so happened that Dottie was equally interested in Peggy.

Although the director of SHIELD at that point, Peggy was still doing field work into the 1960s, eagerly jumping in whenever she wasn't occupied by formalities and paperwork. She insisted that she take the reins of a new case the organization had opened up, one focused on chasing down the recently spotted Underwood.

Dottie was running out of time, her resources and contacts dried up, and the full force of the organization pursuing the criminal. She was no less skilled than 20 years ago, but she was tired, growing older just as Peggy was. Agents cornered Dottie at every corner, sending her fleeing from a party in Paris, an abandoned fortress in Russia, even botanical gardens in England.

The new agents couldn't ever catch her, but she knew her time was running out. Peggy knew the same, when she recieved a phone call sitting at her decorated desk.

"Hiya, Peggy! I hear you're a big boss, nowadays..." Dottie rambled, her tone both mocking and bubbly. Peggy raised her eyebrows, shocked to hear her voice but also unsurprised her nemesis would use a tactic like taunting her.

"Dottie...to what do I owe this call?" Peggy asked, quickly getting to work in order to trace her call. She knew that Dottie was a spy, same as her, and she must've called intentionally, knowing she'd be tracked. But Peggy told herself that, trap or not, it was the only option she had to catch Dottie for good.

"Mmm, I don't have many friends these days...I figured I'd call Old Reliable." Dottie snarked at her, never allowing her facade to slip.

"Flattering." Peggy idly muttered, deciphering the call. According to her work, Dottie was speaking to her from Canada of all places, specifically Ontario. The fact that it was so close to New York must've been part of Dottie's master strategy, hardly believing she would leave anything to chance.

"Y'know, Peg, gals like us just don't have a place in a time like this. I'd love to have one last fallout with you, though..." Dottie giggled, before hanging up on her rival. Peggy put her hand on her chin, pondering Dottie's odd choice of words. She was every bit a linguist as she was a killer.

"Ontario, Canada...fallout...fall...falls..." Peggy thought, suddenly catching onto her opponent's hint. Dottie was just waiting to be captured, or to capture her, maybe, but either way she picked Niagara Falls as the setting for their final duel. She knew she had to do this one alone, it was the only way to catch Dottie and bring her foe to justice.

The cool breeze blew against Peggy's face, a dark blue sky filled with clouds over Peggy's head. With a Walther PPK at her side, a mahogany hat on her head, and a warm coat around her, she walked up to the concrete platform above the falls. SHIELD had closed off the area, the only living soul besides her present a cheery faced Dottie, blonde hair and ruby red lipstick making her look not a day older than when they met.

"You're here! Gee, Pegs, I thought you might not show..." Dottie said, a pleasant grin on her face. Peggy sighed, crossing her arms as Dottie stepped forward.

"I figured I couldn't let you slip out of my fingers any longer. You're coming in with me." she demanded, Dottie giggling. She expected her enemy to underestimate the seriousness of the situation, and she was ready for any move Dottie would take. Well, almost any move.

"Peg, I gotta say...the first time we met, I didn't take you seriously one bit. But you're the only person in the world who can beat me...the only person in the world I really respect. Wish we could've been friends...or something else..." Dottie muttered, her smile turning to a frown. Peggy had never seen Dottie so melancholy, but right as she opened her mouth to reason with the assassin, a warm smile came back to her face.

"No time to be sad, though. In fact..." Dottie then grabbed Peggy and pulled her into a kiss. Peggy's eyes went wide, as Dottie broke the kiss. Lipstick smeared on her lips, she began to feel woozy.

"Wait...that lipstick..." Peggy drowsily began, her eyes opening and closing as she stumbled away from Dottie, who stepped back. She looked back at the falls behind her and smirked.

"I just knew I had to get that lipstick for myself! A chemist was just peachy to do it for me, after I negotiated with him." Dottie answered, Peggy collapsing onto the ground. She yawned, desperately trying to get up, fight Dottie, stop her, do something, but knowing that the duplicate Sweet Dreams would soon send her into a deep, restful sleep.

"Bye bye, Pegs." Dottie cooed, as she shut her eyes, quickly going unconcious.

"Mam...? Director...?"

Peggy jolted awake inside of a SHIELD van, various high-clearance agents surrounding her. She panted, wiping the lipstick off her face, as her eyes darted to the prototype surveillance system inside the van. An agent handed her a bottle of water, which she promptly chugged, looking to him for answers.

"Where did you find me?" Peggy snapped at the agent, in disbelief that Dottie might have eluded escape once more. Damn it, if only she had acted quicker, if only she hadn't shown compassion for the rival spy.

"Right outside the falls, mam." the intimidated agent stuttered, both in fear and respect for his boss. She ran her hands through her wavy hair and sighed.

"And Underwood?" she murmured, aggravated. The agent sighed, before moving out of the way. Peggy stepped forward to look at the monochrome footage, which showed Dottie leaping off the balcony into the waterfall, just seconds after she was knocked unconcious. Shocked, Peggy put her hand on her mouth. She had no love for Dottie, but she did have a respect for her. And a sense of responsibility. In that sense, she supposed they were friends after all.

Peggy, alongside Dottie's other friends from the Griffith, attended her funeral. At the insistence of their director, SHIELD covered up the incident and the fact that she was ever a spy. To all but one of those who knew her, she was a kind, innocent woman gone too soon. And Peggy wanted it to stay that way.

* * *

Daniel was her second, or maybe third love. Though reluctant to admit it, she had schoolgirl crushes, as did everyone, momentary flings too, but as far as real love went, Agent Sousa was one of few to ever catch her heart. He was neither a brute like Krzeminski, nor a slithering snake like Thompson, he was flawed, but so was everyone. Daniel could be trusted. He could be relied on.

Sometimes he talked of his past, though rarely. His parents were poor, and all he knew of was the small corner they lived on, the bullies who tormented him, the war stories his father had. Daniel bitterly remarked that as a child, young and naive, he viewed war as something great. Fighting changed him, as it did everyone. He started from small beginnings, which made her that much happier to see him climb the ranks.

It was in New York, where it began, that it also unraveled. The two were dining at the L&L Automat, and she was off somewhere else. She had loved Daniel, hell, maybe she still did. But he knew all too well that Peggy was running. He once did it himself, frantically escaped to avoid having to confront his feelings. This was coming, it had been for a long time.

"Peg." Daniel said softly, her gaze off towards the small diner's kitchen. She had her hand on her cheek, and something big on her mind.

"Oh, yes, Daniel?" she replied, clearing her throat as her eyes darted to Daniel. He deserved more, someone who wasn't already in love. She didn't know how to say it. But he did.

"I get it." Daniel told her bluntly, laying down some cash on the table for their coffee. She desperately stuttered, trying to find the words to say.

"Peg, I did something that you're doing. Violet was great, kind, I liked her a lot. But I was in love with someone else." he muttered, stepping out from his booth.

"Daniel, I...I'm so sorry." Peggy replied, shocked that she was wearing her emotions on her sleeve. This wasn't like her, to be so open, to be so weak.

"Don't make the same mistake I did." Daniel said as he walked off, showing one last smile to her. Peggy silently sat there, her mouth open. Frozen. She could've tried harder to deny it, she could've done something, she...she was thankful that he understood. If their relationship had finally broken off, he did her one last kindness. He opened a door for her. A door she was scared as hell to go through, but one she needed to enter nonetheless.

Daniel made an excellent chief in SHIELD, he had grown older but also wiser. Less impulsive, less abrasive. One of her finest agents, and it was with a heavy heart she attended his funeral. Dozens of people attended, but the ones she didn't recognize were an old woman. Next to her was a thirty something man that resembled him when he was younger, and a little boy holding a toy police car. It quickly dawned on her who they were. Daniel had found the love of his life. He had built a family.

And so had she.

* * *

It took Peggy what seemed like an eternity to in order to work up the courage. She could easily make decisions on the fly, tough ones, and no person in the world scared her. But love? That was what terrified her.

But she knew she couldn't run forever, Daniel didn't leave her just for that. He did it so she could be happy. She owed him that, she told herself as she walked into the L&L Automat, the brightly lit neon sign out. Inside there was a single light on, above the counter, as Angie wiped it down. She had had a long day, she didn't need Peggy dumping this on her, she rationalized, when Angie spoke up.

"Hey, English! Sorry, we're almost closed. I can pack somethin' up for you, if you want." Angie beamed, clearly relieved to see her best friend. Peggy, who was on her way out of the diner, stopped and turned around. There was no going back now, and that was probably for the best. She sighed and sat down in front of Angie, who seemed intrigued.

"Bad day?" she asked, and Peggy chuckled, looking up at her with a small smile. Angie put her hands down on the counter and raised an eyebrow. Peggy had to say something, anything.

"No, no...well...Daniel and I separated." Peggy began quietly. Angie seemed shocked, and with a frown on her face, took Peggy's hands and squeezed them comfortingly.

"Pff, his loss, Peggy, you're a catch." Angie murmured, grinning at Peggy. Peggy cleared her throat, her cheeks a bright red. Bloody hell, just tell her already.

"It's not like that, Angie." Peggy assured her quickly, shaking her head.

"Oh?" the waitress asked, intrigued by the way the conversation was going.

"He did the right thing, because...I'm in love with someone else." Peggy muttered under her breath. Angie opened her mouth when Peggy looked into her eyes, and she lost her breath. It couldn't be that she felt the same way.

Peggy then grabbed Angie and kissed her passionately. Angie's green eyes went wide before she closed them, reciprocating the kiss. They stayed there, in the dark on a rainy night, until Peggy pulled away, both of them panting. Angie grinned at her.

"You talk too much, English." Angie teased, a loving smile coming onto Peggy's face.

Peggy's love life was a roller coaster, with it's ups and downs. But it was worth it, worth every moment of suffering and sadness to end up where she did. And with who she did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! While I often write original stories, this is my first attempt at writing a fan-fic, so you'll have to excuse me if my characterizations are subpar. I love Steggy and Peggysous and Cartinelli, picking one to settle on was truly difficult. I'd love if you commented, criticism is welcome so I can improve and contribute more relating to this wonderful show.


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